Tag Archive | Judging

The person he is talking about really isn’t the important issue so I won’t share the link. But why would a pastor say something like that? That is just ear tickling to try and relieve the grief of the family and friends. But worst of all it is a lie. Remember the post just from Sunday?

For one sin God banished our first parents from Eden. For one sin all the posterity of Ham fell under a curse which remains over them to this day (Gen 9:21-22). For one sin Moses was excluded from Canaan, Elisha’s servant smitten with leprosy, Ananias and Sapphira cut off out of the land of the living.

This is a short list of people judged for one act. There are many more in the Bible.

What about Achan? Joshua 7:1-26

What about Achan’s family?

Joshua 7:24-25 (ESV)24 And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them up to the Valley of Achor.
25 And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.

Just a few verses to ponder. The point of these verses in Scripture is to show us how wicked we truly are, how Holy God is and how we need the salvation from the Lord. We can never earn our way into Heaven.

Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV)

16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Proverbs 16:5 (ESV) Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 8:13 (ESV) The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Psalms 97:10 (ESV) O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (ESV)

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV)

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I thought this might be helpful since there was some question as to my explanation of Psalm 11. Mine doesn’t compare to Spurgeon’s by any means, but it is not different in the gist.

Psalm 11

1 In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain,
2 for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
3 if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
4 The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
5 The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
6 Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

This is quite long because it goes verse by verse and includes several different notes from other preachers. Well worth reading, but I’ll just give a few quotes.

… When Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption, how craftily will he seek to ruin us by distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out of our confidence, and he will use such plausible logic, that unless we once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make us like the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents itself.

…

“Jehovah’s throne is in the heavens;” he reigns supreme. Nothing can be done in heaven, or earth, or hell, which he doth not ordain and over-rule. He is the world’s great Emperor. Wherefore, then, should we flee? If we trust this King of kings, is not this enough? Cannot he deliver us without our cowardly retreat? Yes, blessed be the Lord our God, we can salute him as Jehovah-nissi; in his name we set up our banners, and instead of flight, we once more raise the shout of war.

…

Look at the black mark upon the faces of our persecutors, and we shall not run away from them. If God is in the quarrel as well as ourselves, it would be foolish to question the result, or avoid the conflict. Sodom and Gomorrah perished by a fiery hail, and by a brimstone shower from heaven; so shall all the ungodly. They may gather together like Gog and Magog to battle, but the Lord will rain upon them “an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone:” Ezekiel 38:22.

…

Are we tempted to put our light under a bushel, to conceal our religion from our neighbours? Is it suggested to us that there are ways of avoiding the cross, and shunning the reproach of Christ? Let us not hearken to the voice of the charmer, but seek an increase of faith, that we may wrestle with principalities and powers, and follow the Lord, fully going without the camp, bearing his reproach. Mammon, the flesh, the devil, will all whisper in our ear, “Flee as a bird to your mountain;” but let us come forth and defy them all. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” There is no room or reason for retreat. Advance! Let the vanguard push on! To the front! all ye powers and passions of our soul. On! on! in God’s name, on! for “the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

We don’t have to flee from the enemy but we can stand strong with the Lord as our refuge. Now that does not mean we take sin lightly. There are many ways to stand firm without risking falling into sin. (We’ll look at some ways later.)

But let the Light shine in a dark world.

Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

The disciples did not spread the Gospel to the world by running away, but by advancing forward with the Gospel. Not with Conservatism. Not with Moral Values. Not with Political leverage. But by sharing the Gospel with sinners.

Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

If Sodom is all around us, even in secluded areas and our heart to some extent, how do we flee Sodom? As I said in the post yesterday, we are to flee to the Lord. All this time of study and just yesterday I found this Psalm. Actually it wasn’t lost, but the meaning became clearer to me. Notice this Psalm does not mention Sodom by name but who can miss the reference to Sodom especially in verse 6 “rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup”.

Psalms 11:1-7 (ESV)

1 In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain,
2 for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
3 if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
4 The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
5 The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
6 Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Psalms 11:1 (ESV) In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain,

The Psalmist David is amazed that he is being advised to flee to the mountains. His refuge is in the Lord, not in the safety of the mountains. There is no reason to despair when we take refuge in the Lord. The Lord is on His Throne (verse 4), why should David flee?

Psalms 11:2-3 (ESV)

2 for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
3 if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

In verses 2-3, David’s advisers warn him that the wicked are seeking to destroy him. The wicked have destroyed the foundations and there was nothing left that the righteous could do. Oh, how many times have we heard that! There is no hope, the world will only get worse, America is to far destroyed to turn back now, it is useless to witness to them, they are too far gone ….

Yet David rebukes his advisers in verse 4.

Psalms 11:4 (ESV) The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.

The Lord is on His Throne and in His Temple; essentially, David is saying the Lord is still in charge. If we today could still remember that the Lord is on His Throne and is ruling the world from there. There is nothing to fear, the Lord is watching all. Is not most of our fear and worry due to forgetting that the Lord is in charge of all, even the wicked for destruction? (Proverbs 16:4)

The Lord will hear His own. But are His own crying out to Him? (Genesis 18:20, Psalm 88:1) It would be good to read the whole of Psalms 18, but here are some portions that apply to Psalms 11.

Psalms 18:6-17 (ESV)

6 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.
7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.

…

12 Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire.

…

16 He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

The Lord will hear the cries of the righteous to come in judgment on the wicked and rescue the righteous.

Psalms 11:5 (ESV) The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

The Lord may test His own but He is still Sovereign and will work all things to the good of His own. (Romans 8:28) Yet the wicked and violent should tremble at the wrath and hate from the Lord. Look at the punishment decreed for the wicked in verse 6.

Psalms 11:6 (ESV) Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

This is the same as what Sodom received. The same as what will be the fate of all who reject the Lord.

Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV)

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Revelation 21:8 (ESV) But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Psalms 11:7 (ESV) For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

But the Lord loves those who do righteousness, they shall see His face.

1 John 3:2 (ESV) Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (ESV) For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

In response to Paul D. Apostle’s article about the Galatian church in your January issue, I have to say how appalled I am by the unchristian tone of this hit piece. Why the negativity? Has he been to the Galatian church recently? I happen to know some of the people at that church, and they are the most loving, caring people I’ve ever met.

Phyllis Snodgrass; Ann Arbor, MI

…

Kind Editors:

I happen to be a member of First Christian Church of Galatia, and I take issue with Mr. Apostle’s article. How can he criticize a ministry that has been so blessed by God? Our church has baptized many new members and has made huge in-roads in the Jewish community with our pragmatic view on circumcision. Such a “seeker-sensitive” approach has given the Jews the respect they deserve for being God’s chosen people for thousands of years. In addition, every Gentile in our midst has felt honored to engage in the many edifying rituals of the Hebrew heritage, including circumcision, without losing their passion for Jesus. My advice to Mr. Apostle is to stick to spreading the gospel message of Christ’s unconditional love, and quit criticizing what God is clearly blessing in other churches.

3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (ESV)

The unconverted person who otherwise attempts to lead a moral life is guilty of making two bad assumptions concerning the wrath and judgment of God. The first bad assumption is that the judgment of God will not come because their sins are not as bad as the wicked people whom Paul described in Romans chapter 1. The unconverted person who attempts to lead a moral life looks with disdain upon the homosexual, the idol worshipper, the murderer, and they know that God will judge these people for their sins. However, the unconverted but moral person does not know the truth of Romans 2:1 “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.” (ESV) The list of sins which Paul gives us in Romans 1:29-31 is extensive enough to cover all of mankind. There is no one who has not committed at least one of these sins. The unconverted person who is attempting to lead a moral life is deluded in the belief that God will not judge their own sins in like manner to God’s judgment of the sins of the openly wicked person.

The second bad assumption the unconverted person who otherwise attempts to lead a moral life makes is that God’s patience is evidence that God will not judge them for their sins. Romans 2:4 says “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (ESV) The forbearance and patience of God in judging sin is for the purpose of allowing time for mankind to repent of their sins. However, many people interpret this forbearance as an evidence that God really doesn’t care about their sins.

Romans 3:5 says “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” (ESV) There is an excellent word picture that we can use to illustrate this verse. God’s patience is like a dam which is holding back His judgment. I used to work in the Engineering Department of a fairly large City. We would sometimes construct a dam. Water would slowly build up against that dam. For the first few months, there would be almost no standing water behind the dam. Then, as time passes, water would build up behind the dam until the lake reached full pool. One year we had a significant rain event which caused one of our lakes to overtop the dam, and as the water began to run down the dry side of the dam, the dam was eroded away and eventually failed, releasing all the water stored up to rush downstream. This is a picture of the patience of God storing up wrath against sinners for the day of judgment. More and more sins store up more and more wrath behind the dam of patience, until the day when God’s patience gives way to the flood of His judgment.

This is a verse that is commonly used to excuse all manner of outward appearance.

1 Sam 16:7 …for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. KJV

This is one of those verses that even non-Christians seem to know and throw out along with “judge not”. However, if you will look at the full passage for the phrase you will see it means much different than it is commonly claimed to mean.

1 Sam 16:7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. KJV

The Lord tells Samuel to “Look not on his countenance” or “on the height of his stature.” How exactly does this have anything to do with clothing? The Lord is telling Samuel to not judge David by his “countenance” meaning whether he is handsome or plain. This is not referring to clothing at all. Look at the next criteria “on the height of his stature.” This is how tall he is, not what David is wearing. David very well could have been very short.

Later in the passage, this verse is found:

1 Sam 16:12 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. KJV

What does this have to do with his clothing? Not one thing, it is describing David’s physical appearance.

The Lord will judge us on our heart but we as mere men must judge only on the appearance and the fruit, not a man’s heart. A person’s outward appearance is an indicator of the condition of the heart.

A person can look perfectly modest, pure, righteous, and God fearing on the outside and have an evil, depraved, and God-hating heart. Nevertheless, a person who is modest, pure, righteous, and God fearing in the heart cannot look immodest, evil, depraved, and God hating on the outside.

Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. KJV

Just as out of the heart the mouth speaks, also out of the heart the clothing choices are made. Are your clothes chosen to glorify the Lord and represent Him or are your clothes chosen to glorify yourself?

Matthew 7:1-5- Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye? Your hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Now, do these verses teach that we are not supposed to judge in any way? Can we not say anything that is perceived as negative to anybody? In other words, can we ever tell anybody that they are wrong? Let’s get to the bottom of this judging thing. Let’s begin by looking at what these verses do not mean. Then we will see what they do mean.

He then covers many verses that deal with sin and judgment. Between subjects like modesty and the “Bama Twins” and Rick Pino, I have found most who claim to be Christians are not willing to have anyone question anything they do. They twist “judge not” in to one of the most mistreated, misused and most quoted verses in the Bible. Right along with “God is Love” and “the Lord looketh on the heart“. They are all used to excuse any manner of sin because of the reasoning given that “A Loving God looks at the heart and would not judge them, nor should anyone else.”

Do Halloween “judgment houses” win many people to Christ? I’d like to offer seven reasons why I think they don’t.

1) “Judgment houses” aren’t scary enough. To speak of hell, Jesus used the image of a garbage dump overrun with worms, a place where babies were once sacrificed to demons (Mark 9:43-48). Teenagers in plastic devil masks and Styrofoam pitchforks usually don’t convey what it means to “fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

Post navigation

First Things First

The most important fact necessary before reading this website is to examine yourself to see if you are a Christian. If you are not a Christian, much of this would be ‘Foolishness’ to you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 Cor 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you are not a Christian then I recommend reading the following:

What is a Berean?

Acts 17:11
"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." NIV

My Purpose

Comments

Please feel free to leave comments and you do not have to agree with me. But if you disagree please be kind enough to share the Scriptural reasons.

Great Books

Copyrighted Information

If I have in any way violated a copyright or not given appropriate credit to an author please forgive me. It was done innocently and in ignorance. Contact me if there is a problem and I will be glad to remove or edit it as desired.